Tykeim approached the table, observing Mary and her group of friends. His eyes immediately went to Mary first. She sat at the center of the round table laughing at something one of her friends said as she stirred her spoon in the bowl of soup on her tray. To her left was a sienna skinned girl with shoulder length braids, clear beads at the ends, eating a slice of pizza with one hand and scrolling through her phone with the other. 

“The new kid still didn’t answer my question.” The girl with the braids complained after swallowing a bite of her pizza. 

“Patricia, if none of the guys here like you, what makes you think the new guy will?” A white boy with brown hair asked, laughing when Patricia flipped him off.

“At least girls outside our friend group talk to me without being dared to, Logan. So, I don’t want to hear anything from you.” Patricia hissed and angrily took another bite out of her pizza.

“That’s because Logan is misunderstood by the ladies. You on the other hand…well, you're quite…picky.” A light brown boy slung an arm around Logan’s shoulder and chewed on his own slice of pizza while talking. 

“Excuse me, please don’t talk with food in your mouth. Gross.” 

“You do have high standards Patricia but there isn’t anything wrong with that.” Mary joined the conversation, nodding in agreement as she patted her friend on the back. 

“At least you got to sit next to one of my high standards.” Patricia sighed with a pout. “Didn’t you say you had a few classes with the guy?”

“Yes.” 

Patricia’s purple eyes sparkled in curiosity as she leaned closer to Mary. 

“What’s he like? What do you think of him?” She asked excitedly.

“Yeah what do you think of me?” 

Tykeim choosed to slide into the empty seat beside Mary at that moment. He watched in amusement as everyone at the table other than Mary froze in place, moving nothing but their blinking eyes. Mary on the other hand rolled her eyes at Tykeim.

“Looks like you finally made your way to us. You were taking so long, I wasn’t sure if you were going to make it.”

“Really? It’s not like I know anybody here except you so I don’t have anywhere else to sit.” Tykeim smirked. “Plus I would never pass up the chance to sit next to you.”

“You only know me huh?” Mary asked, ignoring his last sentence with a smile.“I guess we oughta change that.”

Mary pointed to the girl next to her, snapping the braided hair girl out of her frozen state. 

“This is Patricia, my best friend and our classmate in our homeroom. She is also a cheerleader on my squad.”

“Hi!” Patricia waved at him with a smile that showed off her pink and blue colored braces. 

 “Hi.” Tykeim returned with a polite smile. 

As civil as he acted, he truly had zero interest in the other girl both in terms of a friendship and as a girlfriend. Fortunately for her, she was Mary’s best friend, which meant Tykeim would play nice for now. However, the moment Mary became his girlfriend, he planned to convince her to dump Patricia. His mother wouldn’t like him hanging out with a girl like her, and it especially wasn’t a good look for Mary. But in due time I can find her more suitable female friends, Tykeim comforted himself as Mary continued introducing him to her friends. 

“That's Logan and Eddy. They're best friends and members of the basketball team.”

She pointed to the boys across her. They each grinned and waved when their name was called. 

Oh, they could be useful, Tykeim thought to himself as he greeted the two boys.

“Hey Patricia, what happened to that soda you said you would buy me while you were in the line?” Mary asked her friend, who looked a little confused at the question.

“I said I would buy you a so-Oh!” Patricia exclaimed, her purple eyes widening as she remembered. “My bad Mary, I got distracted by another girl’s outfit. It was pretty cute, you should've seen her. Anyway, I can go get you one right now if you still want it.”

Before Mary could answer, Tykiem joined their conversation.

“Don’t worry about it, I can get it for you.” 

Especially since your useless friend can’t do it without getting distracted.

“Are you sure? You don’t have to.” Mary glanced at him and he couldn’t fight the smile that took over his lips.

“But I want to.”

I want you to like me, to fall for me, to depend on me. I’m a sweet, kind and considerate guy. Your perfect boyfriend, your perfect guy. I’m what you need to complete your life, to improve it really. 

“It's no problem Mary, I really don't mind. Especially since Patricia is still eating and I haven’t started yet. It's better that I do it.”

“Okay since you keep insisting, I want a lemon lime soda please but you better not come back here with my soda and demand that I pay you back.” Mary told him highhandedly. Tykeim laughed.

“Of course not, my treat.” 

Tykeim walked over to the vending machines that were across the cafeteria. He found the one that only dispensed soda and dug in his pocket for his wallet. As Tykeim was pulling some coins out, he felt the hair at the back of his neck stand up. It felt as if someone was watching him. Thinking that it was Mary or maybe even Patricia, he ignored it and put the coins into the vending machine and pushed the button for Mary’s soda. Once it rolled out, he caught it and headed back to Mary’s table. 

Tykeim began smiling as he walked back to the table, his eyes focusing only on Mary not paying attention to his surroundings when his body collided with another. 

“What the-”

Warm soup and cold chocolate milk stained the front of his sweatshirt, the fabric uncomfortably sticking to his stomach. A stream of the disgusting liquid dripped onto the floor and his shoes, staining his white shoelaces. The soda Tykeim was holding in his hand dropped on the floor during the collision, landing in the puddle of soup and chocolate milk that landed on the floor. 

“Oh my bad. I didn’t mean to bump into you. Jeesh.” 

A boy with purple hair and a choker chuckled awkwardly as he held his now empty lunch tray. If Tykeim looked closer, he would have noticed that his black boots also got splashed by the awful combination of soup and milk. But Tykeim didn’t notice and didn’t care. He didn’t even hear a word the other boy was saying. He was too busy focusing on the feeling of the wet fabric clinging to his skin, watching as the liquid slowly drying on both his favorite shirt and shoes, and the smell of the salt of the soup combined with the sweet chocolate smell of the milk taking over his nose. 

“Yeah I don’t know what else to say but sorry man.”

Tykeim snapped his head up. He certainly heard the boy then.

“You're sorry?”

“Well, yeah-”

“No.” Tykeim shook his head, his lips pressed in a firm line as he body trembled in silent rage. “No, do you really think that some pathetic ‘sorry’ makes up for this?”

Tykeim stepped closer to the boy, keeping firm eye contact with the other student’s wide lemon-yellow eyes. They both stood at the same height; unfortunately for Tykeim,that meant he couldn’t stare down at the boy like he would with his brother. Not that it mattered really, because Tykeim was too pissed to care about the other’s height. 

“Woah, there is no need to get all worked up over this.” The purple haired guy raised his hands in a surrender-like position but didn’t take a step back as Tykeim crept closer into his personal space. 

Tykeim reached out a hand and grabbed a handful of the boy’s shirt and pulled him closer to him. Now Tykeim’s face was right next to the teenager’s pierced ear. 

“You. Ruined. My. Favorite. Shirt. And. My. Favorite. Shoes.” Tykeim growled into his ear. “Saying sorry is not gonna cut it. No, I’m going to make you feel sor-”

“That's enough boys! Break it up.” A new but familiar voice interrupted from behind Tykeim with a few claps.

Tykeim let go of the other boy, who in turn let out a sigh of relief as he turned to face the voice. Standing behind him with her hands on her hip was Mrs. Joy with a frown painting her face. 

“I see an…accident occurred here.” Her green eyes glanced at the soiled floor, to the purple headed boy’s empty food tray and to Tykeim’s ruined shirt. “But that is not a reason for a physical altercation to occur.”

“You're right Mrs. Joy,” Tykeim forced himself to shove his anger down, giving his homeroom teacher a strained smile. “I lost my temper a little bit but don’t worry I wasn’t going to hurt him.”

“You weren’t?” The purple haired boy asked in surprise, raising both his eyebrows.

“We were just talking.” Tykeim sent a sharp closed eye smile in the other boy’s direction. “Right?”

“That's right Mrs. Joy, we were just talking, that's all.” The other teenager quickly agreed with a nervous laugh. 

Mrs. Joy eyed the two boys with a frown, looking unconvinced 

“Are you sure you're alright Kiante?”

“Yes ma’am, I’m perfectly fine and this is all just a big misunderstanding.”  

The tension left Mrs. Joy's small figure as she let out a relieved sigh.

“I watched it happen, you know? After you guys bumped into each other, I saw Tykeim grab you. I was afraid you two boys would get into a fight so I stepped in. I’m happy to hear that wasn’t the case and this was all a misunderstanding. I’m sorry to accuse you of such a thing, Tykeim, especially on your first day of school.”

“No, it's fine,” Tykiem laughed and waved her off. “You were just making sure that nobody got hurt. I can’t get mad at you for that.”

Because somebody was going to get hurt if you hadn’t stepped in. Though Tykiem was genuinely happy that the shorter woman stepped in. Not because he didn’t want to hurt the other student for spilling his food on him, because Tykiem still had the urge to spill blood. However she brought him back to reality, reminded him that there would be consequences to his action. That there were lines that he couldn’t cross if he wanted to continue his plans. This is not the way I want to earn the school’s attention, Tykiem hissed in his head as he watched Mrs. Joy call over a custodian to clean up the mess.